No-Presentation Roundtable format.
I’ve been getting into Acumatica User Group gatherings a lot more lately, thanks to my role at TRAILD.
Click here to learn more about TRAILD
For an Acumatica User Group gathering, I use a No-Presentation Roundtable format:
- 3 hours total, catering Panera Bread for lunch/dinner.
- Group Time for the first hour. Circle the chairs and go around the circle. Each person gets 2-3 minutes to share something that they’re doing with Acumatica.
- Free Time for the final two hours. Now that we “broke the ice” in group time, it’s time to break out the laptops have fun.
- Click here for a more in-depth explanation of the format
At the start of Group Time, I read the following 15 quotes from the book
Community – The Structure of Belonging by Peter Block.
At the start of an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, they read the A.A. Preamble. It sets the tone for the gathering.
Reading these quotes at the beginning of Group Time acts as a “Preamble” that sets the tone for the rest of gathering.
There is growing interest in building community.
Community – The Structure of Belonging
by Peter Block
At best we convene a social event, a block party, or a reception, with food and music.
All good things to do, but people most often huddle with like-minded people, and strangers remain strangers.
Community – The Structure of Belonging
by Peter Block
Professional conferences continue to be designed around inspiring keynote speeches and content-filled workshops to attract attendees.
Presenting data in this way becomes a weak substitute for learning and education.
Community – The Structure of Belonging
by Peter Block
We can create structures of belonging even if we are introverted and do not like to make eye contact.
Community – The Structure of Belonging
by Peter Block
Social fabric is created one room at a time. It is formed from small steps that ask
“Who do we want
in the room?”
“What is the new conversation
that we want to occur?”
Community – The Structure of Belonging
by Peter Block
It is when citizens stop waiting for professionals or elected leadership to do something,
and decide they can reclaim what they have delegated to others,
that things really happen.
Community – The Structure of Belonging
by Peter Block
Peer-to-peer interaction is where most learning takes place;
it is the fertile earth out of which something new is produced.
Community – The Structure of Belonging
by Peter Block
The small group is the structure that allows every voice to be heard.
It is in groups of three to twelve that intimacy is created.
This intimate conversation makes the process personal.
Community – The Structure of Belonging
by Peter Block
In the small group discussion, we discover that our own concerns are more universal than we imagined.
Community – The Structure of Belonging
by Peter Block
In gatherings where there are more than twenty people in the room
— which I am calling the large group —
we need to move back and forth from the small group to the large group.
Community – The Structure of Belonging
by Peter Block
Questions are the essential tools of engagement.
Community – The Structure of Belonging
by Peter Block
Most leaders are well schooled in providing answers and remain rather indifferent and naive as far as the use of questions goes.
How many PowerPoint presentations have you seen flooded with answers, blueprints, analyses, and proposals?
How many have you seen presenting questions?
Community – The Structure of Belonging
by Peter Block
Physical space is more decisive in creating community than we realize.
Most meeting spaces are designed for control, negotiation, and persuasion.
Community – The Structure of Belonging
by Peter Block
Community is built when we sit in circles, when there are windows and the walls have signs of life,
when every voice can be equally heard and amplified,
when we all are on one level.
Community – The Structure of Belonging
by Peter Block
The circle is the geometric symbol for community, and therefore for arranging the room.
No tables if possible.
Community – The Structure of Belonging
by Peter Block
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